rrals this morning.
They'd built them a 'dobe, and cleared some land, and planted a few
trees, and made an irrigated patch for alfalfa. Nobody never rode over
this way very much, 'cause the country was most too rough for cattle,
and our ranges lay farther to the southward. Now, however, we began to
extend our ridin' a little.

I was down towards Dos Cabesas to look over the cattle there, and they
used to send Larry up into the Double R country. One evenin' he took
me to one side.

"Look here, Jed," says he, "I know you pretty well, and I'm not ashamed
to say that I'm all new at this cattle business--in fact, I haven't
been at it more'n a year. What should be the proportion of cows to
calves anyhow?"

"There ought to be about twice as many cows as there're calves," I
tells him.

"Then, with only about fifty head of grown cows, there ought not to be
an equal number of yearlin's?"

"I should say not," says I. "What are you drivin' at?"

"Nothin' yet," says he.

A few days later he tackled me again.

"Jed," says he, "I'm not good, like you fellows are, at knowin' one cow
from another, but there's a calf down there branded T 0 that I'd pretty
near swear I saw with an X Y cow last month. I wish you could come
down with me."

We got that fixed easy enough, and for the next month rammed around
through this broken country lookin' for evidence. I saw enough to
satisfy me to a moral certainty, but nothin' for a sheriff; and, of
course, we couldn't go shoot up a peaceful rancher on mere suspicion.
Finally, one day, we run on a four-months' calf all by himself, with
the T 0 iron onto him--a mighty healthy lookin' calf, too.

"Wonder where HIS mother is!" says I.

"Maybe it's a 'dogie,'" says Larry Eagen--we calls calves whose mothers
have died "dogies."

"No," says I, "I don't hardly think so. A dogie is always under size
and poor, and he's layin' around water holes, and he always has a big,
sway belly onto him. No, this is no dogie; and, if it's an honest
calf, there sure ought to be a T 0 cow around somewhere."

So we separated to have a good look. Larry rode up on the edge of a
little rimrock. In a minute I saw his hoss jump back, dodgin' a
rattlesnake or somethin', and then fall back out of sight. I jumped my
hoss up there tur'ble quick, and looked over, expectin' to see nothin'
but mangled remains. It was only about fifteen foot down, but I
couldn't see bottom 'count of some brush.

"Are you all